


Grieving Birthday

by RedXD



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Happy Ending, Keith’s Birthday, Takes place after season 7, i think, rushed ending bc i wanted to post this on the 23rd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 11:06:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16386698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedXD/pseuds/RedXD
Summary: Keith’s Birthday isn’t the only annual thing on the 23rd.





	Grieving Birthday

Keith stares out the window at the night sky. Sleep never comes easy to him, insomnia if you will. Today though, as the time ticks closer and closer to midnight, he knows for certain he won’t be able to fall into any sort of peaceful sleep. 

He imagines lines connecting the different stars into small constellations.  He counts each star. 1..5..7..9..14.. Each star glistens and shines brightly in the dark blanket of night. 

His eyes glance down at the watch Pidge made him. They made everyone watches with a messaging feature in case they lost all other options of communication. The time says 12:01 PM. 6 minutes..

If only he had a telescope. He tries to find the star Antares, but he isn’t surprised to have no luck. Keith’s dad had always said his favorite star was Antares. Antares is a star apart of the Scorpio constellation. Keith remembers his dad’s voice.  _ “Scorpio is my favorite because it makes me think of you.” _

A sigh rattles from his lungs. Scorpio is Keith’s  _ least _ favorite constellation. All it does is makes him remember..

It makes him remember the fire.

The screaming.

The smoke.

His dad’s back as it walked away.

The empty feeling when he never turned back.

He watches as the numbers slowly change morphing into 12:07. His breath hitches. 12 years.. tears begin to prick his eyes again. Keith rubs at his eyes. He has to be strong, just like his dad would want. 

Reaching for a pen, he slips his feet into his boots. He scribbles a note on a small green sticky note. 

 

_ Gone out, be back later. _

_ -Keith _

 

Putting on a dark red hoodie, Keith walks into the motorbike garage. He jumps on one and drives out of the Garrison.

 

—

 

He stepped on the brakes and slowed to a stop in front of.. nothing. His eyes flicker back and forth, all around. Keith’s eyes settles on a pile of wood chips and rubble. He walks closer.. only to see the ashes of what once used to be his home. 

Heartstrings snap. Wind blows. Stars shine. 

And Keith. Keith breaks. Everything in him falls apart. 

If he wasn’t crying before, he sure is now. Quiet sniffs come from him as tears fall down his face. He makes no move to wipe them away, only falling to his knees and staring at the remains of the life he once had. 

The stickiness and warmth overwhelming his face goes ignored. The cool wind of night brushes past him.

Thump. Thump. Thump. 

His heartbeat. The human heart, the core of the human. Pumps the blood, gives people a pulse. Right now, Keith’s heart aches and cracks. It beats against it’s cage of bone. It screams, crying out for things to be the way they were.

At the same time though, he didn’t want that. He’s happy to have met Shiro, Allura, Hunk, Pidge, and so many other people. To have been able to meet  _ Lance. _ Lance the heart of Voltron. Lance the flirt. Lance the idiot who doesn’t realize how fucking angelic and amazing he is. Keith has noticed things. He notices when Lance has that look of shame and insecurity. He noticed back when they were on the castle ship his face of homesickness. He could tell that Lance wasn’t just perfectly okay. Yet, he still did nothing. You know why? Because Keith is scared. Of too many things.

Keith is scared of failure. Scared of abandonment. Scared of rejection. Scared of weakness. He’s scared of every fucking thing that makes up him whole. 

So he stays there. Stays on his knees. Stays in the desert sand. Stays as night continues on.

Because if nothing else is ever going to stay, then he will. 

He knows it’s been at least an hour. A quick glance at his phone tells him it’s been nearly two and a half hours. 

Picking himself up finally, Keith goes back towards the motorbike. He jumps on and begins to drive through the deserted land of sand and rock towards his next location.

 

—

 

The few leaves rustle as the early morning air rushes through them. 

Keith walks up the makeshift stone steps. He passes by multiple gray gravestones. Each unique and identical at the same time somehow. Is it just him or is it getting colder? Who knows.. 

He glances at the time again. 5:13 AM. A sigh rattles from his throat for the millionth time today. The cool sensation of the morning finally begins to numb him. Took long enough..

The warm earth crunches as he walks. His feet stop at the trunk of a tree. His eyes glance around at the graveyard. It didn’t look any different. Guess only certain things got destroyed by the Galra..

Tall graves like towers, short fat squared graves. His eyes land on the most familiar one. A single medium sized grave. The top is rounded, but slightly pointed too. He hears the pounding on the dirt as his feet carry him closer.

Keith’s fingers trace the words on the grave. He kneels down to stare face to face with the grave. Sparing a look at the flower in his hand, he carefully lays down a single white poppy. It means peace. 

He hopes his dad has peace up there.

Light begins to fall over him. He glances at the peach yellow sunrise, hints of lavender and plum tracing the sky. 

Looking back at the grave, he turns his back to the stone and sits down. With a longing huff, he looks up at the sky again.

“I know it’s been a while since I’ve seen you last, Dad.” Keith hates how weak his voice sounds and clears his throat trying to strengthen it. 

“A lot has happened. I met mom. She told me about what happened and I get it now. I just wanted to thank you for all those nights you assured me she  _ did  _ love me.. I think that helped me. When I met her.”

With a sigh, he continues. He knows he was only talking to himself, but in a way, Keith felt comfort in talking to the gravestone. That little ounce of hope that maybe, just maybe his Dad  _ could  _ hear him. 

“I made friends too, I know you were always worried I’d be alone forever and I know you’d be proud of me. I uh..” He hiccups. He felt his face only to come back with wet, sticky fingers. He didn’t even realize he’d started crying. “I-I miss you. Everyday. Things were damaged, when the Galra came and I uh, I looked for the shack. I-It was in pieces and I’m sorry. I know you loved that shack. I know it’s because of Mom now. You met her and lived with her there.”

Another hiccup. “I’m r-really sorry. I couldn’t save you.. I c-couldn’t save the shack either..” 

With a small sob he turns to look back at the grave with blurry vision. “I l-love you, Dad.”

He sits there for a few more hours.

 

—

 

A thought comes to mind. Oh yeah, it’s also his birthday. How old is he now? 20? Who knows anymore. 

He checks his watch. 7:41 AM. Guess he’ll be one year older in a few hours. 

Not like it matters. 

Only his dad mattered right now.

He drives past his old school he met Shiro at. It’s crumpled and broken. Kind of like how he felt being there. Keith makes a mental note to thank Shiro again when he sees him next. 

With a sharp turn, he heads back to the Garrison.

 

—

 

Lance walks out of the bathroom and drags a hand down his face. Eyes glancing at the clock, he sees it’s around eight thirty in the morning. 

He dresses and checks the date. Pidge made calendars for them in space, but the Garrison had more earth-accurate ones. 

His eyes widen as he sees that it’s October 23rd. Keith’s birthday! He grins. Mullet will have so much fun, just you wait.

All he has to do is go and distract the boy for a little while.

Lance opens the door and heads down the hall towards Keith’s room. He stops. The door is wide open. 

He peeks his head inside. It’s empty except for Kosmo sleeping in the corner. The Garrison had given Keith a dog bed for Kosmo and it seems he liked it. 

A small sticky note on the side table catches Lance’s attention. He walks inside at grabs it, reading it quickly.

 

_ Gone out, be back later. _

_ -Keith _

 

Why would he want to go out _alone_ on his birthday?! A frown makes itself apparent on Lance’s face. 

He goes towards the motorbike garage inside the Garrison. Once there, he looks at the console. 

 

_ Motorbike  _ _ 013 _

_ Docked out at: 12:21  _ AM

 

Lance could bet his face was extremely hilarious right about now. He squawks randoms words. 

What in the  **hell** was Keith doing awake at  _ 12 AM _ !!?

A faint rumble sound breaks his trance. His eyes flicker to the main gate of the garage. It slowly raises up to reveal a distant looking Keith. 

“Lance?”

 

—

 

Keith sighs sadly as he types the code for the Garrison garage main gate. He’s so ready to go lock hinself in the training room for the rest of this horrid day. It slowly raises and he notices a figure near the console. 

His eyes squint and he recognizes two pretty ocean blue eyes and a head of short chocolate colored hair. 

“Lance?” 

Said boy watches in silence as Keith drives inside, closes the garage door, parks the bike, and hops off. 

He walks towards the door back inside, but Lance stands in front of it.

“La-“

“What the hell were you doing up at Twelve in the morning?” His voice is worried and reminds Keith of those insanely protective parents from movies.

“Just… out.” He mumbles.

Lance frowns and crosses his arms. “Not sleeping?”

Keith gulps. “I.. I couldn’t sleep.” He looks down and stares at the floor. 

He doesn’t expect Lance’s voice to sound concerned and sympathetic next. “Why not?”

His throat becomes clogged as he tries to get the words out. 

“I-It’s.. d-dad’s.. anniversary.” He manages.

Lance raises an eyebrow as he processes the information. “Anniversary? Of what?”

Keith bites his lip and wills the tears away. Closing his eyes, he tries to speak.

**Pathetic.**

“D-Death.” He chokes out.

All of sudden, he’s enveloped in warm arms. He opens his eyes to see Lance hugging him. He feels his warm breath against his cold cheek.

“I’m sorry.” Lance whispers.

Keith nods and brings his arms around to hug Lance back.

The other boy ushers a, “He’d be proud you know,” before letting go of the hug.

Before he knows it, Keith is being dragged through the corridors by Lance.

“Where are we going?!”

Lance winks and continues dragging him. “You’ll see!”

Eventually, they stop at the door the kitchen. Lance turns around and grins brightly.

“Ready?”

“For what?” Keith raises an eyebrow.

Lance pushes open the doors and Keith sees Hunk, Shiro, Pidge, Allura, Coran, Krolia, Romelle, and Kosmo all standing there. Hunk is holding up a small cake that’s red and black. 

“Happy Birthday!” Everyone cheers in unison.

Tears prick Keith’s eyes and he squats. Cupping his face in his hands, he smiles.

“Thank you.”   
  



End file.
